Britain’s deadliest areas for drivers have been revealed – but are they near you? A rural county that has no motorways has been crowned as the most lethal place to drive in the UK last year.
There were 1,602 fatalities on British roads in 2024, a slight 1% fall from the previous year, according to New Department for Transport figures. Some 29,467 people were killed or seriously injured, also a 1% fall from 2023, while there were 128,272 casualties in total, a 4% fall. The largest number of fatalities was among drivers and passengers of cars (692), followed by pedestrians (409), and motorcyclists (340).
Deaths among motorcyclists are on the rise with 8% more dying last year whilst pedestrian fatalities increased by 1%.
A telling map shows there were vast differences across the country in the number and severity of injuries caused by road traffic accidents.
Rural roads appear to be a hotspot for incidents accounting for 60% of all fatalities or 956 deaths. In comparison there were 555 fatalities in urban areas, and 91 on motorways.
Lincolnshire, with no motorway running through it, made the top of the list for fatalities, with 53 people being killed on its roads last year.
Kent took second place as the next most lethal place to drive with 45 fatalities, followed by Essex (42), Norfolk (41), and Lancashire (37).
Overall, Kent also had the highest number of casualties of all severities, with a staggering 3,821 people receiving some form of injury from a road traffic accident.
Surrey had the second-highest number of road traffic injuries (3,120) whilst Birmingham took third place with 3,055 injuries followed by Lancashire (2,996), and Essex (2,965).
And now the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has issued a stark warning that “progress on road safety has stalled”.
It warns that “vulnerable road users now account for over half of all fatalities, highlighting the need for a new approach to road safety”.
Rebecca Guy, Senior Policy Manager at RoSPA, said: “These figures are a stark reminder that progress on road safety has stalled, and lives are being lost unnecessarily. It is essential that the upcoming national road safety strategy contains the measures and resources needed to prevent road traffic collisions.”
